1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to a process for preparing acrylic or methacrylic acid amides functionalized with cationizable tertiary amino groups by aminolysis of acrylic or methacrylic acid esters with the aid of enzymes. The present invention also relates to the acrylic or methacrylic acid amides obtained by this process.
2. Description of the Background
Many processes are known for obtaining acrylic amides from the corresponding esters by reaction with amines which prevent or minimize the secondary so-called Michael reaction resulting from the addition of the amine to the double acrylic or methacrylic bond. Thus, the patent FR 2,259,088 discloses a process in several stages going through the formation of an intermediate product such as .beta.-amino-propionamide which is then treated thermally at high temperatures. However, this process has the drawback of generating undesirable decomposition products and of having a low overall yield.
Another known solution (FR 2,423,482) requires use of a dialkylated tin-oxide based catalyst as an accelerant for the aminolysis reaction. But such a process makes use of compounds which may not satisfy the current concerns regarding the environment.
In order to mitigate the various problems set forth above, another known method (FR 2,590,567) discloses a process of reacting an acrylic or methacrylic anhydride with a diamine. But this method has the disadvantage of requiring a costly anhydride which is difficult to obtain, and produces acrylic or methacrylic acid as a by-product.